


Out in the Open

by fictorium



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Boss/Employee Relationship, F/F, Femslash, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-25 04:59:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14371416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictorium/pseuds/fictorium
Summary: For the prompts 'oh my god you're in love with her' and 'for some reason I find myself attracted to you'





	Out in the Open

Kara doesn’t  _mean_  to do it. It’s just that defending Cat, or singing Cat’s praises, or pointing out that  _actually Ms Grant was misquoted and what she meant was…_  is second nature to her, after two years as her assistant. 

And she left Adam and Cat at the restaurant just when things were getting interesting, so of course she has to talk about it. Alex starts out making all those big sister digs about Adam being her boyfriend, about how Kara’s going to go on dates with him and seriously, how can Alex see that none of that is the point?

It takes one final jab from Alex, some lazy joke about how at least Adam can’t be as awful as his mother because she didn’t raise him, to make Kara’s temper snap. She doesn’t mean to sound so defensive, to give away anything of what she truly feels, but Alex has always known the quickest ways under her skin.

“He would have been lucky to be around her all those years, anyone would! I keep telling him–and you, and anyone who’ll listen–that she is a great mom to Carter. And she can be so kind! She does so much for charity, and her employees, that she never takes credit for. Oh, Alex, and if you could just see how protective she gets about journalists in the field, even when they don’t work for CatCo organizations. I know I’ve made my complaints, but Cat Grant has the biggest heart of anyone-”

“Oh my God.” Alex sets down her beer. “You’re in love with her.”

“What? Alex! Okay, how strong is that beer, because… what?” Kara knows she’s flustered. She’s blushing, she can’t think of a single convincing thing to say. She’s had this dream. Only instead of Alex in Kara’s living room, it’s somehow a reporter live on CatCo News, or the PA system at the airport, accidentally leaning on it and being entirely busted in her love for Cat Grant. 

“You love her. That’s why you’re being more of a disaster than normal with a guy who likes you. If it was some random dude, fine, but you can’t get into it with Cat’s son because you’re worried it blows any small chance you might have with her. Tell me I’m wrong.”

“Alex, no, you’re…”

“Am I wrong?” Alex persists. All Kara can do is cover her face with her hands. She didn’t want anyone to know, and especially not like this. 

“…no,” she finally admits, her voice tiny. “Is it really obvious?”

“Only to me,” Alex assures her. “Shit, Kara. You couldn’t get a crush on someone a little less… Cat?”

“It’s way worse than just a crush,” Kara can feel the dam breaking, even as she falls back on the sofa and pulls a cushion over her face. “It’s everything, all the time. I’m crazy about her, and to Cat I’m just that girl who brings the coffee and talks too much.”

Alex considers a moment, going back to her beer. “I don’t think so.”

“You’re the one who said she couldn’t give a rip about me,” Kara reminds her. 

“That was before. Now she’s really seen you. Even for trying to prove you were Supergirl, she was way too invested. If  _anyone_  else had done what you did with the letter, and her son… they’d never find the body. How has she been, by the way? About you maybe dating her long lost boy?”

“Fi-fine,” Kara stammers out. 

“Actively pushing you together? Trying to encourage you by suddenly being nice to you?”

“I mean, she brought coffee-”

“Ever done that before?”

“No,” Kara says. “But that doesn’t mean…”

“That she’s hiding her own, possibly inappropriate feelings, by pushing you toward the one person who puts you out of bounds, maybe forever if it gets serious?”

Kara peeks out from behind her cushion. “Two weeks ago you were threatening to disappear her for outing me as Supergirl. What are you suggesting now, that I date her?”

“I’m suggesting you… find out exactly what’s going on.” Alex isn’t great at clarity. “Tell Adam you can’t date him, and then tell her why? That way it’s up to her to act on it or not.”

“You  _want_  me to date my boss? Who could potentially out Supergirl? Who… who’s the most gorgeous and amazing and smart person I’ve ever met?”

“Apart from me, naturally,” Alex says, tossing a cushion at Kara. “I’ve never seen you this gone on someone. What kind of sister would I be if I told you not to go after what makes you happy?”

“The kind of sister who’ll run a black ops mission on her if she ever makes me unhappy, right?” Kara has to check.

“Oh, bet your ass. She’ll be getting quite the shovel talk if you two can make this work.”

Kara smiles into her cushion. If Alex thinks it’s a good idea, then maybe Kara can summon courage for the one thing that still scares her, even as Supergirl. 

“We’ll see, I guess,” is all she can commit to for now. “Now come on, it’s your pick on Netflix.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Ms Grant?” Kara knocks almost silently on the glass door, interrupting Cat as she surveys the proofs for their next issue. There’s only a distracted “hmm?” in response. “I don’t know if you talked to Adam-”

“I did.” Cat picks up one of the prints and heads towards her desk, despite the late hour. “He’s leaving. Going back to Opal City.”

“Ah.” So Kara’s plea that he stick around and keep getting to know Cat has fallen on deaf ears, then. “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. The reason, that is. The reason I broke things off with Adam.”

Cat looks up, despite her frosty body language. She never can resist the hint of a story behind the story. Exactly what Kara is counting on. 

“I’m sure that’s none of my business. You made your decision, Keira.”

This is where any sane person would walk away. Any other time Kara would, but she’s still buoyed from last night’s conversation with Alex and being free of the burden of Adam’s uninvited expectations.

“I just…” She should have written something down. Index cards, a scribble on her hand even. But then Cat shoots her another curious look over her reading glasses and Kara knows she can make it through this little speech. “I would never get involved with Adam knowing that I have feelings for someone else. Now that I’ve realized those feelings, it occurs to me that I should probably also tell the person I have feelings for. Romantic feelings.” 

And for a single, shining moment, Kara thinks that’s all it’s going to take. It doesn’t take super-hearing to hear the way Cat’s breath catches in her throat. The darting glance that seems almost… hopeful? That’s perfectly visible to the human eye, just as much as the alien one. 

Then Cat’s poker face is back in place, her tone bored, her entire demeanour just a little bit, insultingly, distracted.

“Well, run along then. Far be it for me to interfere with your Sleepless in Seattle moment.”

Kara forms her hands into fists at her side, forcing herself to stay calm. She can do this. Or at least, she has to try. 

“You mean, meet the person I want to be with at the top of a tall building, late at night?” Kara’s voice has the tiniest tremble, but she carries on anyway. “Well this is as close as it gets without dragging you up to the helipad, and we both know you’re having too good of a hair day to risk that.”

Cat sets down her tablet as though considering it might be fragile for the very first time. Her reading glasses come off next, and Kara holds her breath like she’s witnessing an unexpected striptease. When Cat’s gaze meets her own though, Kara’s the one who feels suddenly naked. 

“The reason you broke up with Adam…” she beings, a prompt for Kara to complete, to anticipate the ending of the sentence that they both need.

“Is because it wouldn’t be fair to date him when who I really want to be dating… and kissing… and doing other things with… is you, Cat.”

Cat stares her down, mouth curling into a hint of a smile. “Oh, really?”

“Yes, really.” Kara puts her hands on her hips. Rejection, she expected. Cat thinking it’s some practical joke? Not so much. “I told my sister and everything.”

“Oh, well if you told your sister.” Cat stands then, uncurling from her chair with the feline grace of her namesake. The walk around the desk almost certainly counts as stalking her prey. Kara stands still, and hopes she isn’t swaying under the force of Cat’s attention. “For some reason, I find myself attracted to you, too. So what, exactly, is it that you want from me…  _Kara?”_

It must be serious if Cat actually got her name right. Kara’s so thrilled she forgets to answer, darting forward to kiss Cat instead. Only Kara overdoes it slightly, pushing Cat against the desk as they collide.

“Forceful,” Cat murmurs, looking down at where their hips are pressed against each other. She lays a hand flat on Kara’s chest, right where the crest would be if Kara had the suit on. Accusation and confirmation both, then. Kara knew the double stunt had failed the moment Bizarro appeared. “I don’t mind it. Yet.”

“Can I kiss you?” Kara asks, because this is one moment that has to be perfect. She has to be sure, not just stumbling into it like every other romantic disaster in her life.

“I don’t know,” Cat teases, her hand on the move now, until those slender fingers are gripping the back of Kara’s neck. “Can you?”

Any other time Kara would have corrected herself to  _may I_  instead, but there’s no time for grammar when Cat’s pillowy-soft, barely-glossed lips are right there for the taking. 

Then they’re kissing, and Kara is done with thinking. Apart from  _wow, Ms Grant can kiss as well as she does everything else_  and that’s it for a kiss-filled, hand-wandering while, stopping only when they’re reaching the point of one more button or zipper taking them all the way into public indecency. 

“The car,” Cat manages to instruct, but it’s soft enough to count as a request, one Kara fulfils willingly. “Let me take you home.”

Later, in the privacy of Cat’s bedroom, in the ridiculous oasis of her oversized bed, Kara will find words for worship. She’ll make Cat cry out against her, time and time again. When Cat asks her to say something, anything, to push Cat over the edge one last time, in the wee small hours, Kara will smile and say  _I chose you_. She won’t add that she chose Cat over a strapping 25-year-old man, her own son no less, but Cat’s ego will find the flattery in the statement all the same.

For right now though, all Kara needs to say is  _yes_. She takes Cat in her arms and uses just a hint of powers to speed them toward the private elevator, one step closer to the freedom to do everything they’ve both been fantasizing about. 

As they make out against the wall of the elevator, Kara has to admit that she’s glad she finally spoke up. Alex is never going to believe it worked out this well, but that’s kind of her problem. 

Because right now, Kara has everything she wanted, including Cat’s hand slipped underneath Kara’s shirt. She might just have to be more vocal in future. 


End file.
